Hi! Our names are Ryan and Natalie. We are two and three years old. We are best friends. We play together every day at our daycare. We both like Jackie. We are too small to watch his movies, but Lisa, who takes care of us, tells us about all the fun stuff Jackie does and we color Buddy Bears for him all the time. We made him Christmas and birthday cards too. We have pictures of Jackie holding them up on our bulletin board at daycare. We like looking at the pictures a lot. It makes us happy.
One day, Lisa told us how a lot of kids lost their houses and schools when a tsunami came. We learned a tsunami is a big wave where the water is really high. The water breaks things and can take them away. We saw pictures of places where the houses were all gone. Lots of kids were sad that their houses and schools were gone. Then, Lisa showed us pictures of Jackie with kids who need help. She told us he was trying to get money for kids who need new schools and houses. And he’s trying to get money for new books for them. There are kids who need medicine too. So we’re going to help Jackie help those kids!
First, we took all our pictures of Jackie helping kids and put them on a poster. Lisa put the words on, then we put a lot of sparkly stickers on. We like the star and smiley face stickers the best. They are really shiny and fun. We made a really cool poster. When we were done, we put it up at the daycare so everyone could see it and see how Jackie is helping to get kids new schools and stuff.
Next, we found a big jar. It’s a jar you can see through and it has a lid. Lisa cut a hole in the lid big enough to put money into. We put pictures of Jackie helping UNICEF on the jar. But we didn’t cover the whole thing. We want to be able to see through it. You know why? We are going to fill the jar with money! We want to be able to see when it is full to the top! Then we will send the money to Jackie so he can help the kids get new schools and houses. (Note: we will actually send the money to UNICEF, but the kids always say we are going to send it to Jackie.)
Our jar is already half full of money. We have a bowl that people put money into and then we get to put the money into the jar. Our mommies and daddies have brought money for us to put in the jar. Some of our other friends at daycare have therapists (that’s a type of teacher) come help them learn things. They have given us money to put in the jar too. It’s starting to get so heavy that both of us had to hold it so we could have our picture taken with it.
We are very proud of our poster and show it to everyone who comes to the house. And we love putting money in the jar. We will be very happy when it is full and we can send it to Jackie. Then some of the kids who lost their schools and houses can be happy.

 

WHEN JACKIE SAW THIS STORY, HE WAS SO IMPRESSED THAT HE ALERTED THE HONG KONG NEWSPAPERS:

Update to this story:

Jackie Continues to Help Kids Help Other Kids

The story continues! It started with Natalie and Ryan and now another kid is following Jackie's lead.

Alec is 10 years old. He comes to the daycare to play with Natalie, Ryan, and the other kids a couple of times a month. Unfortunately, he was not at daycare the day the UNICEF poster was made and the money jar started. Recently, he was looking at the poster and talking to me about raising money to help Jackie help other kids. Alec was very excited about it. He counted all the money that had been collected in the money jar so far. $67!! It's surprising how people's pocket change that they throw in the jar can add up. From previous discussions about Hong Kong, Alec remembered that American money transfers into more Hong Kong money. So he figured out how much money $67 would be in Hong Kong- About $520. Then he told me, "If I put the money I get for helping you with the daycare into the jar, that would be about $80 more Hong Kong dollars!" I suggested he just put half his salary in the jar, so he would still have some for himself. "No, no! I'm putting the whole thing in!" And he did. At the end of the day, he took ten one-dollar bills, his entire day's salary, and put it in the UNICEF collection jar.

Jackie's young fans are amazing. They should be very proud of themselves, as I'm sure Jackie is very proud of them himself.


This is the poster that Ryan and
Natalie made.

Ryan working on the poster.

Natalie working on the poster.

Ryan and Natalie with their poster and donation jar.

Alec counts the UNICEF change.

Alec adds his salary to the jar.